A&P Need some help/sugguestion needed on a series

I'm taking a architectural photography class for my masters degree in architecture (its an elective) the first assignment is to take 2-3 images of the same building at the same spot (roughly) in differently lighting conditons.

The first is - mid-day
second is at sunset
and third is at night

I need suggestion on how to make these better or any suggestions at all on how to improve these before I turn them in on friday.

One problem I see is the second image is from about 7 ft back from the other two - I was chased fromt he parking lot during this time and didnt get to move up to my other spot and get the picture. Stupid security sometimes

I'm guessing he photo shopped it. But I would say try keeping your shutter open for about 3 seconds on the night shot. I'm guessing you have a digital, so go one night and play with all your features including using the flash. If security comes tell them it's for a school project and you'll leave in 20 minutes, if that's no good call the office building the next day and ask to speak to the head of security, tell them your situation and see what they say. BTW I'm no pro when it comes to photography but have played a lot with my digital and found that using flash at night for far away shots can be interesting. Also if you go back and take more shots, please post them and tell us what you did.

I was just looking at the other two shots. On both shots they have to much sky, the second shot looks a little over exposed. In both day shots is there a way you can catch more of that reflection I see? Just a suggestion to show the glass feature of the building a little more. Also, how long is the building. Try taking the shots regularly instead of up & down. Hold the camera like you would normally and catch the length of the building.

I agree that you have too much sky in the first two shots but you can easily crop some of it out. I love the framing of the building. You did a terrific job on that aspect.
I have to disagree with K270 about using your flash at night. The building is simply too big and too far away for your tiny flash to be of any help.

Following is an example of a night time exposure of about 45 seconds. The lights that are illuminating the house are small floodlights that you can buy at any hardware store.

There is a techinque called "painting with light" where you set your camera up for a long exposure of several minutes and while the shutter is open you walk around close to your subject and hit it with a hand held flash unit. This can result in some great pics but you need to be able to get your flash withing about 30 feet or closer to your subject.

the night shot was already exposed for 65 seconds total. So exposing for three seconds isnt going to do any good. I think its simply too dark there to do much unless I take jcolman's suggestion of painting with the flashlight. The building sits alone on a pretty dark road at night. All the other buildings are on the other side of the highway.
Taking the shot horizontally (which i tried) simply doesnt work - building is too tall and I dont want to have to distort it by using 18mm. Vertically seemed to work best.

The composition is bad. you chopped off the building on the right and left sky on the left. Make the image landscape, fill the whole building in the shot.

Click to expand...

I disagree here. There are trees on the right and the building seems to dissapear behind them. The trees also serve as a framing device. There is no need to include the entire building in the photo. Overall, I think the framing/conposition is great with the exception of having too much sky in the top of the frame.

the night shot was already exposed for 65 seconds total. So exposing for three seconds isnt going to do any good. I think its simply too dark there to do much unless I take jcolman's suggestion of painting with the flashlight. The building sits alone on a pretty dark road at night. All the other buildings are on the other side of the highway.
Taking the shot horizontally (which i tried) simply doesnt work - building is too tall and I dont want to have to distort it by using 18mm. Vertically seemed to work best.

Click to expand...

Painting with light is a good way to go, except that in your case the building is too high for a photo flash to do any good. You'd need one hell of a powerful light to wash the building. If you want to use tungsten light, a two k light (balanced for daylight or with a color correction gel) would do the trick, but it would still be a bit on the small side. Plus, you'd need to find 20amps of power for the light.

thanks for the help jcolman, for this project I think its sorta useless to go all out painting the building, its just a basic introduction on how different lighting conditions will affect the shot.

As for the framing, its simply impossible to get the whole building in a shot, it sits on a complex with 2 other buildings plus a parking garage, if i want the front of the building in a shot, I cant get the entire side as well without including a completely different building in it as well. And the parkign garage blocks my other choice in angles for the shot. I did the best I could with what I had to work with.